Conduit Ventures, a leading energy technology venture capital
firm specialising in fuel cells and related hydrogen technologies, today
announced that it has led a Series A venture capital investment in CMR
Fuel Cells Limited. The co-investor was Carbon Trust Investments Limited.
CMR is a Cambridge-based fuel cell company, dedicated to the development
of a revolutionary flow-through fuel cell utilising mixed reactants. The
investment is the latest for the Conduit Ventures Fund.
CMR Fuel Cells was spun out of The Generics Group (Generics), the international
technology and business consulting organisation, based in Cambridge. The
Generics Group remains a significant minority shareholder in CMR Fuel Cells
Limited.
CMR is a radical new fuel cell stack technology that has the promise
of unlocking this enormous market potential. CMR's patented design architecture
aims to make fuel cells 10 times smaller and more powerful and up to 80%
cheaper than competing products, thereby overcoming the key hurdles delaying
mass-market global sales. Whereas current fuel cells are complex, tightly
toleranced stacks of individual multi-component cells with precious metal
catalysts, CMR delivers a radical architecture simplification and a robust
porous "solid state" stack with dramatically fewer and cheaper components.
CMR is developing fuel cell stacks for use in applications such as battery
chargers, auxiliary power units, laptops, power tools, robotic devices,
portable generators, and portable military applications.
The core team is led by Michael Priestnall, previously Head of Fuel
Cell Consulting at Generics, and Michael Evans, previously a Principal
Researcher at Cambridge University. The team has over twenty years of experience
in the fuel cell industry.
Michael Priestnall, CEO of CMR Fuel Cells Limited commented: "Cost,
durability, system complexity and fuelling are key barriers delaying mass-commercialisation
of fuel cell technology. Our Compact Mixed-Reactant stack technology addresses
each of these head-on. We are applying it first in portable direct methanol
fuel cells where we believe the market opportunity is closest. I believe
that one day all fuel cells will have to be built this way and appreciate
the support that our investors and development partners have brought to
enable this to happen."
Daniel Carter, a Principal at Conduit Ventures, commented: "Conduit
Ventures has been actively seeking an investment with 'game-changing' potential
and we are impressed by CMR's unique technology, team and its development
and progress to date. CMR's stack technology has the potential to achieve
superior cost, size and reliability targets affording the company a position
as an enabler in significant segments of the small-scale premium power
fuel cell market."
Russell Pullan, Private Equity at the Carbon Trust said: "This investment
will help advance the emerging fuel cell industry in the UK which is part
of the Carbon Trust's drive to promote a low-carbon economy. CMR Fuel Cell
technology could offer ultra-low emissions for distributed generation,
producing heat and electricity in small units at the point where the energy
is needed."
Martin Frost, Managing Director of Generics commented: "We're delighted
to announce the formation of CMR to exploit this latest breakthroug technology
developed at Generics over the last two years and look forward, with our
partners, to building a company of substantial value."
